The Eyes are the Windows to the Soul
by 153alira
Summary: Tara thought she was just hepling her cousin with a job from the Air Force, Ra believed she was just a vision from a past that wasn't his. What will happen when they find they're totally wrong?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or anything related to Stargate franchise. **

**Note: This is based of the first movie, I haven't seen much of the tv show.**

**This is a continuation of my one-shot 'Why so special?' and this is a short introduction chapter to my character Tara. Please review, that will be awesome thanks.**

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><p>11:00 am.<p>

'_Time to clock out'_

It was mid February and the tiny heater in the corner of Alex's Diner was working over time, as was the poor waitress who was pulling all night shifts and working extra hours.

"Kate, I'm going home now. Could you watch the floor till Steph gets here?" Tara asked the other waitress working while pulling the hood of her over sized jumper over her head.

"So you're finally going home girl?" A hefty older woman walked out from the kitchen and lent refilled the coffee pots. "Good. Get some sleep before fall over and hurt yourself."

Tara shook her head. "I can't just yet. I have to pick up Daniel after his presentation."

"You mean that crazy cousin of yours?" Kate asked as she walked back into kitchen.

Tara sighed and grabbed her bag, "He is not crazy, he's just ... well." She struggled to describe her cousin.

"Reads too many comic books huh?"

"More like he's obsessed with his work."

"Runs in the family I see," Kate sighed, "Girl, all you do is look after your cousin, and work your tiny ass off. You need to care of yourself for once in your life. I swear since you stopped going to collage you've been ..."

"Yeah I get Kate." Tara groaned. She had heard this speech over and over again, it was worse than having a mother.

"You know what you need Tara? A good m..."  
>"Do <em>not<em> say that I need some guy to come sweep me off my feet and solve all of my problems. I've been told the same thing way too many times."

"Oh come on baby, you deserve your own Prince Charming." Kate said, coming round the counter to give her a side hug.

But Tara just scoffed, "Do I look like a princess?" She asked, pointing to herself, specifically her eyes

Tara was born with a rare and unusual trait. One of her eyes was a light grey and the other was a deep orchid. This was a major turn off as it looked like she had a dead eye, and made her a popular target for bullies when she was a kid.

One-Eyed Terror Tara stuck with her for a long time, even into her high school years.

"Princesses come in all shapes and sizes." Kate said, dramatically gesturing to herself.

"I think I'll stick to being a normal peasant thanks." Tara pried the woman's arm off her just as a customer came in and ordered a large burger, giving her the chance to escape.

"I'll see you tonight." She sang as she walked out into the freezing cold street. Dark clouds were rolling in fast over the city. There was a storm coming.

Tara swore and began to speed walk down the main street, all the while shoving her earnings into her backpack. On the way to the train station she bought a coffee and small bun to sustain herself from a stand outside the large shopping that sat above the subway. The cheap hot liquid burnt her tongue and she lost all sense of taste, but she sipped it quietly as the train rattled along in the dark tunnels.

Yes she lived a normal life, no devastating secrets, no worthwhile stories, nothing.

As much as Tara enjoyed this simple life she was living, she did feel at times bored with it. She would remember going to Harvard and loving every minute of it, and not just when she would surpass even the teachers. She still caught up with her classmates but only on a rare occasion, so really the only time she had contact with people was at the diner and when Daniel was in town.

As the train came to a stop and people departed or scrambled to get on, Tara saw a punk with bright blue hair spiked up high pass by her window. She then caught her own reflection and stared at herself.

'_Maybe I could dye my hair too_,' She mused, '_Or at least cut it. Better yet a nose ring would be cool._'

But she gave up the thought just as quickly as she had conjured it. After all there was not point changing what she looked, she was fine as she was now, and as for her eyes, well her idol David Bowie had different coloured eyes and he was awesome.

She finally arrived at her station and squeezed her way to the door. She apologized and excused herself, but no one really noticed or cared.

After all, she wasn't anything special.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate.**

**I promise the writing will get better in later chapters. Reviews and critisim are welcome.**

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><p>The rain began to poor heavy drops of water onto the city, forcing everyone to duck for cover. The meeting had just finishing in the Grand Lux Hotel and forty professors and doctors were greeted by this turn of events. Those determined to brave the foul weather held up their umbrellas firmly.<p>

Unfortunately for Daniel and Tara, neither of had one.

"So, how did it go?" Tara asked, tugging her hood further over her head. "Please Tara, not now." Daniel struggled to pull his hood on as he carried two bags out of the building.

Tara just nodded and guessed that he had just flunk another presentation of his theory on the origins of the Ancient Egyptian culture, hence loosing another chance to earn another grant for his work.

"Danny, you need to make your approach to your theories a little less conspiracy like. No one like it when people start preaching 'the aliens built the pyramids' story." Tara said, finally taking one of the bags from him.

"You've seen the photos of Khufu. The writing is all wrong."

"Yes I know, I have actually been to the pyramids, but that doesn't necessary scream 'alien work' to me." Daniel looked despondent. "Look Danny, I'm trying to be a good family member, but you are making this three times as hard for both of us. Now that you're staying with me things are always going to be tight."

"I'll figure something out." Daniel said shoving his suitcase under his jacket.

"Last time you said that you got kicked out of your apartment."

Both of them failed to notice a black limo parked right in front of them, and a man walking towards them.

"Dr Jackson." The man dressed as a valet and held an umbrella over their heads. "What? Yes?" Daniel clumsily responded.

"Someone wants to speak with you."

Tara looked at Daniel, who looked at the man oddly, then to her, then back at the man. "Who ... who wants to talk to me?"

"United Sates Air force sir."

"The Air force? What's this?"

Another man came out of the car, Tara felt a little concerned now. Soon Daniel was ushered into the limo while Tara was left standing in the rain with two strangers holding umbrellas over her head and their bags.

"You two mind filling me in on what's going on?" She said, her face now plastered with her hair. "I'm afraid this only concerns Dr Jackson." One of them said casually.

"I _am_ his cousin." Tara said.

Both of them looked surprised.

This was nothing new to her. Though they were family, they looked nothing alike.

Five minutes later, Daniel emerged from the limo holding an envelope and had a slightly bewildered look on his face. The two men closed their umbrellas and left the two of the standing there while they drove off.

Daniel looked into the envelope and at the limo driving away.

"What was all that about?" Tara asked, picking up the bags. When he didn't respond, she waved a hand in front of his face. Still no response, so she smacked him on the back of his head.

"Ow, what?"

"Let's go home, before this weather gets any worse." She said and tossed one of his bags at him. Being a klutz, he dropped it onto them wet pavement.

About half an hour later via the train, they had arrived at the huge apartment building on the south side of the city, on the border of the main road and the ghetto. It was all Tara could afford, but it was a pleasant enough building. It had its share of bad apples but she was smart and steered clear of trouble.

Her apartments itself was small, just a one bedroom type with the kitchen and living room/Daniel new bedroom joined together. "Make yourself at home, I'll make tea." She said tossing her bag onto the counter. Daniel awkwardly shuffled over to the couch and sat himself down, removing his soaked duffle coat.

As Tara waited for the pot to boil, she glanced from picture to picture on the kitchen wall, each one of her and Daniel growing up. Some were of their parents and friends, one of their grandfather before he died. Looking at them now, it was like chalk and cheese when comparing the two of them.

Daniel had soft natural blonde hair that sat straight and blue eyes hidden behind his glasses, a classic Norwegian look, while Tara had messy curls of dark brown, almost black hair that was layer unevenly and stuck out in different direction. She also had creamy coffee skin, since she was Egyptian in her mother's side.

Their story was fairly complicated. Daniel's parents died when he was a baby and Tara's mother left her with her terminally ill father when she was five. Their grandfather arranged for the same foster parents that took in Daniel to also adopt her, hence making them foster siblings as well as cousins.

The pot whistled loudly and Tara poured the hot water into the cups and soon the foster siblings were curled up on the couch talking about the day's events.

"So who was it you were talking to?"

"The Air force, namely a Ms Langford, wants me to translate some Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs."

Tara scoffed, "Why would the Air force need translations? I pretty sure that's not part of their job description."

"That's what I'd like to know." Daniel had that look in his eye. The look he could whenever faced with a puzzle.

"How can you be sure this isn't a hoax?" Tara asked, leaning her arm on the large pillow beside her.

"Well, she knew an awful lot about us."

Tara rolled her eyes.

"She knew about my ... problems and our current living arrangements." He nodded to the tiny room to reaffirm his words, "And also about you dropping out of Harvard."

"Hey, I did that so you could afford the stuff you needed for your research." Tara didn't like to bring up the fact of her missing the chance to be a professor, even if she did it for Daniel.

He pulled the cup up close to his lips and took a tentative sip."But she said I could prove my theories by translating these hieroglyphs."

That caught Tara's attention. She took a deep breath and though carefully about it. "Are you sure about this?"

Daniel shrugged. "I don't know. But there is only one way to find out." He looked at the envelope again and Tara knew he had already decided.

"Fine. Do what you feel is best. But don't think for a second that you'll be leaving me out of this." She unfurled herself and placed her empty cup onto the tiny coffee table.

"I .. uh .. what do you ...?" Daniel stuttered. "You heard me. You taught me everything I know and I bested half the professors at Harvard. Just consider me a consultant or something."

Daniel frowned and scratched his over grown fringe. "Well ... I guess it wouldn't hurt." He gave up resisting and shrugged. Tara grinned and glance over her shoulder.

"The phone is by the fridge."

Daniel got up to call Ms Langford and Tara went to work setting up his bed, as the couch was a pull out. As she straightened out the sheet, she kept catching snippets of Daniel's conversation, but only a word or two. Maybe this was the excitement she needed to help her bland lifestyle, or at least settle her growing discomfort so as she could get on with life.

Kate would be happy for her. At the thought of Kate, Tara glanced at her watch. It was 6:37 already.

"Shit!" She dropped the pillow she was moving and ran to change her cloths as fast as she could, "Danny, I have to go to work now!" She called from her room, struggling with the buttons. Once decent she grabbed her bag and coat, pulling 20 dollars of her wages out and giving it to him. "Spare key is in the top draw, there's a blanket in the cupboard and do _not_ get any pizza from _Fabio's _down the road." She instructed and left the poor befuddle man alone, still talking on the phone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate.**

**I promise the writing will get better in later chapters. Reviews and critisim are welcome.**

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><p>"Achoo!"<p>

"Bless you."

Tara reeled back from her cousin's sneeze and pulled out a handkerchief for him. They were currently in an elevator of a military compound they had been escorted to with one of a lieutenant named Kawalsky

"Cold?" The lieutenant asked.

"Allergies." Daniel took the handkerchief graciously and sneezed into it, "It always happens when I travel." He smiled awkwardly and stuffed the hanky into his pocket.

"You should really get some drugs for that." Tara patted his back. The doors of the elevator opened at level 28 and the cousins walked into a large corridor lined with pipes. Kawalsky led Daniel and Tara down the corridor where a man in a really ugly jumper met them.

"Dr Jackson? Dr Gary Meyers, how are you?" The man said.

"Hi." Daniel nodded. Meyers looked at Tara and gave her a polite nod.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get your ..?"

"Oh, Tara." She held out her hand but withdrew it when she noticed both his hands were full. "What is this place?" Daniel asked.

"Nuclear Missile Sylem." A woman with a black jacket and thick glasses joined them.

"What?" Tara exclaimed.

"Don't worry it's been completely converted. Barbara Shore." She said in one breath.

They all entered a room marked 'Research Laboratory. Authorized Personal Only' and Tara could not believe what she saw.

It was a massive stone tablet covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was broken into several pieces and in the centre piece a cartouche unlike anything Tara had ever seen. She looked to her right and almost laughed at Daniel's expression, it was like a child in a lolly shop.

"Wow." Was Tara's only reaction.

An elderly woman walked out from a small cubicle that resembled an office and shook hands with Daniel. She turned her focus onto Tara and gave her a warm smile. "And you must be Daniel's young cousin Tara." They shook hands gently.

"Um, yeah."

"I'm Catherine Langford."

'_So this is the lady huh_.' Tara thought to herself.

"This is ... well ... uh ... where'd you find this?" Daniel managed to spit out, his eyes still glued to the tablet.

Catherine chuckled, "Giza Plato, 1928."

"I've never seen anything like it." Daniel walked up to it and traced his hand along the stone.

"Of course you haven't. No one has." She explained.

Tara squinted to try and read the hieroglyphs, "1928 huh? How come this was never reported?" She muttered to herself. A black board caught her attention while Dr. Meyers started explaining things.

"Now there's two lines of hieroglyphs. The inner track has the classic figures, but the outer track is like the cartouche in the centre. It's got writing unlike anything we've ever found before."

While Daniel inspected the tablet, Tara looked at the translation on the black board and knew it was inaccurate.

"Daniel?" She called him over and he too saw the error. "The translation of the inner track is wrong."

"Must have used Budge. I don't know why they keep reprinting his books." Daniel grabbed an eraser and began fixing the errors.

"Budge is good for beginners." Tara shrugged and worked on the second line.

"Excuse me? What are you doing? We've used every single known technique." Meyers interjected, but neither listened, too engrossed in the translation.

"This is 'sealed and ... buried' here." Tara pointed at the second line.

"And that's not coffin ... 'For all time'. Who the hell translated this?" Daniel asked.

"Well ... I ... I did." Meyers admitted. Tara sighed and mentally forgave him.

Daniel stood back and inspected their work, "Well, this should read 'A million years into the sky is Ra Sun God. Sealed and buried for all time ...' and ..."

Tara grabbed the spare chalk and scribbled in something. "It's not ... a door to heaven so to speak, it's ... ' His Stargate.'"

"Very good Tara." Daniel patted her back.

"I learned from the best." She answered smugly. Both Jacksons turned and looked at all the smiling and surprised faces. "So, why is the military so interested in 5,000 year old Egyptian tablets?" Daniel finally asked, something Tara was itching to know.

"My report says 10,000."

Everyone looked at the man who spoke. He was tall military man and looked somewhat important.

"Afternoon Colonel." Kawalsky greeted the man who nodded in return and passed his report off to Kawalsky, but Catherine seemed non-plussed.

"Um, do I know you?" She asked the man. "I'm Colonel Jack O'Neil from General West's office. I'll be taking over from now on."

All the scientists looked at each other confused, this seemed totally out of nowhere for them. Tara wasn't too worried about who was in charge, only about the number this colonel had mentioned.

"Well, Colonel O'Neil, I'm sorry but your report is wrong. There is no way that this is 10,000 years old." She gestured to the tablet, "Egyptian culture didn't even _exist_ then."

The colonel gave her a disapproving look, "Miss you're not even authorized to be here."

"A... well ... she's ... she's my consultant." Daniel piped in, and O'Neil went on ignoring them.

"Danny, I'm right ..."

"Yes the figures ludicrous." He nodded

"We know, but the sonic and radio carbon tests are conclusive." Barbra cut in.

"Well, these are cover stones. Was there a tomb underneath?" Daniel asked.

"Oh no. But we found something, a lot more interesting."

"Really?" Tara leaned in to hear what.

"Excuse me. This information has become classified." O'Neil chipped in before Barbra could say anymore.

He looked at Tara and Daniel in particular before saying to Kawalsky, "From now on no information is to be passed on to no-military personal without my expressed permission," and walked out.

"Catherine what's going on here?" Meyers asked. "I don't know." She followed O'Neil while the rest of the team and Tara and Daniel were left standing there.

xxxxxxxx

Two weeks later, Daniel was still no closer to solving the cartouche. He and Tara had gone through almost every know book on hieratic symbols written and thought off every possible meaning behind the strange symbols.

What really rattled Tara's mind was the writing in the inner track.

_'A million years into the sky is Ra Sun God. Sealed and buried for all time, his Stargate.'_

What the hell was a Stargate? Was it some sort of artifact or treasure owned by the pharaohs? But the coverstones dates back before the known Ancient Egyptian civilization had been established, yet the hieroglyphs clearly stated 'Ra' the Sun god. Maybe this was an earlier culture that also worshiped Ra.

'A million years into the sky.' Wouldn't it make sense to write 'into the Heavens,' or is it referring to the actual sun? But an early civilisation wouldn't know that the sun was millions of light years away from the earth.

While Tara scribbled these notes down, Daniel was listening to a recording of himself, again.

"As much as I love the sound of your voice Danny," Tara yawned, "I'm sure you can just write your notes down."

"I think better when I hear things, rather than write." Daniel stared up at the coverstones, I steaming cup of coffee in his hand. Tara looked at her watched. It read 2:47 am.

She had to hand it to Daniel, he was persistent. He was actually the one who inspired her to become a linguist and study history.

Lack of sleep finally caught with Tara and she felt her eyes close and her pencil fall out of her grasp.

There was one thing Tara was sure of, and that was that she didn't dream.

On the rare occasion when she did, it would always be cryptic, and mysterious.

She dreamt that she was walking though a desert, the sun had not come up yet so it was cold, the wind blowing the sand against her legs and bare forearms. Daniel, O'Neil and Kawalsky walked in front of her, guns in hand.

A lone falcon swooped down out of nowhere and clipped the back of Kawalsky's head, causing him to shoot wildly at the bird. Several more appeared and started attacking them, clawing and nipping at their heads until they bled. O'Neil yelled at them to run but they were cut off by a snarling jackal, growling and forcing them back.

O'Neil and Daniel kicked sand at its face, but it still advanced on them. Tara turned to run back the way they came, but in the distance she saw a great pyramid, the light of the rising sun shining out from behind it. As the sun rose higher and higher, Tara felt warmth creeping back into her blood and her fear being washed away. Finally, the sun's rays shone over the peak of the pyramid and caused the falcons and jackal crumpled into dust.

The sunlight beckoned Tara to come forward, to be fully embraced in its warmth.

A terrible scream from behind made her turn. Daniel's skin turned red and boils formed all over. He scratched at his skin, making the pain worse and worse until his flesh caught fire. The same happened to O'Neil and Kawalsky, yet Tara remained unharmed by the light. In fact she relished it, let it consume her whole body. She felt complete, yet somehow empty.

Bang, clash.

Tara jolted awake to the sound of Daniel half tripping up the metal ladder next to the tablet. He was holding a piece of newspaper up and comparing it to the symbols of the cartouche. She checked her watch again. 3:18 am.

"Orion." She heard Daniel mutter. "Mmmm... what? Daniel it's ..."

"I've figure it out." He cried, climbing down the ladder and placing the article in the table in front of Tara. "Look. What do you see?" He pointed at the paper.

Tara rubbed her eyes and picked up the article, which showed a picture of the constellation Orion that had been drawn on. "You played 'Connect the Dots' with the stars?"

"Yes, in a way," he said laughing awkwardly, "But what does it look like?"

Tara focused on the symbol closely and started to make the connection. It looked just like one of the symbols on the tablet.

"Constellations?" She looked at him in disbelief. "You mean these symbols are actually constellations that were discovered almost 7,000 years _after_ this thing was created?"

"Yes. It's not a language, they're coordinates." He sounded excited and started to rummage around looking for something. "And all we have to do now is match the symbols in the cartouche with the corresponding stars and we have our translation."

"Wait what, coordinates? What are you on about?"

He found what he was looking for in a cabinet and placed it on the table. It was a large map of the stars.

"You mean now?" Tara groaned. "I'm on a roll Tara. The soon this is done, the sooner we get paid."

"Dude, you've had too much coffee."


End file.
